Cole also said that she had been naive when Girls Aloud won ITV1 show Pop Stars: The Rivals, with Walsh as one of the judges.

''Louis Walsh had come out publicly and said, 'They're all fat. They all need to lose weight'. And the record label sent us all to have training...but we were just thinking they were doing us a favour at the time. We were so deluded,'' she told the magazine.

''We worked like crazy in those days. We didn't stop for breath...We never had management. Louis claimed to be our manager but he never did it.

''We didn't talk to him or anything like that. He just took a cheque. Literally, we didn't have management,'' she said.

Cole criticised Walsh for having ''zero involvement'' with the management of Girls Aloud, and added: ''Oh yeah, he took the cheques.''

Cheryl Cole and Prince Harry (PA)

She said: ''I talk to him because now I get that business is business and that's how he runs his but he never chose a hit. Who chose them? Us.

''It could be the key to our longevity because it was genuine... Everything was raw and real. The only thing that was different was that we were put together through that process.''

The singer said that the rise to fame ''would have been...pure hell'' if the band had not got on.

She told the magazine: ''In the beginning you don't know the industry and I'd never had to handle the pressure that comes with fame. That's something that no-one can explain to you. Especially not from home because nobody's experienced it.''

Cole added: ''It makes me chuckle sometimes when I see the new up and coming ones and I see myself in them back then.''

Of recent X Factor winners Little Mix and contestant Cher Lloyd, she added: ''It's cute. It's like you see they're excited and they feel like they're in the industry but really they haven't done anything yet. It's a learning process.''